I stopped playing hockey about 13 years ago. I was getting burned out and didn't want to be around the dude culture anymore. I was done with all the BS.

But Team Trans came along and just revitalized me. It’s a trans hockey team, which creates a great space to celebrate trans people who love hockey.

We have all levels from beginners to people who have played pro. There's lots of love, hugs, getting to know people, and making friends.

I love playing with them and it's still the only team I play with. I'm also bringing this team on our campus, and trying to put out the message to say, "Look, these people are just like you. They're great people. There are people who work in the United States government, people who are nurses and teachers. They are people who are just like everybody else.. They are people who unfortunately struggle to get jobs."

We're starting to get some popularity and notoriety, but what we want is to make it so that we don't have to be just on our own.

We want kids in high school to be able to play with their teams in alignment with their gender and the way they present themselves.

Playing goalie in hockey was my happy place. I loved it and couldn't get enough of it. There's times it was hard, but I didn't mind that. I loved being able to have a great game and make some friends.

There were times I didn't want to be around my peers because I was very uncomfortable dealing with the rejection. Especially in high school, I had all kinds of different things going on in my head.

There was some dysphoria there but I didn't know that language. I didn't realize what it was.

But the euphoria right now is honestly waking up every day and being able to be who I am.

[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued]